+ The Dawson Papers

+ 2005 Symposium

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  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.
  • Session Two: William Dawson, Up Close.
  • Session Two: William Dawson, Up Close.
  • Session Two: William Dawson, Up Close.
  • Session Three: The Spirituals: Meaning and Mythology in African American Identity.
  • Session Three: The Spirituals: Meaning and Mythology in African American Identity.
  • Session Three: The Spirituals: Meaning and Mythology in African American Identity.
  • Session Four: Reciprocity and Representation: Music, Letters, and the Visual Arts.
  • Session Four: Reciprocity and Representation: Music, Letters, and the Visual Arts.
  • Session Four: Reciprocity and Representation: Music, Letters, and the Visual Arts.
  • Session Four: Reciprocity and Representation: Music, Letters, and the Visual Arts.
  • Session Four: Reciprocity and Representation: Music, Letters, and the Visual Arts.
  • Session Five: The Intersection of Concert and Vernacular Traditions.
  • Session Five: The Intersection of Concert and Vernacular Traditions.
  • Session Five: The Intersection of Concert and Vernacular Traditions.
  • Session Five: The Intersection of Concert and Vernacular Traditions.
  • Session Six: Music as Social History.
  • Session Six: Music as Social History.
  • Session Six: Music as Social History.
  • Session Six: Music as Social History.
  • Session Six: Music as Social History.
  • Session Seven: The Ecology of the Music: Identity, Artistic Expectation, and Arts Institutions.
  • Session Seven: The Ecology of the Music: Identity, Artistic Expectation, and Arts Institutions.
  • Session Seven: The Ecology of the Music: Identity, Artistic Expectation, and Arts Institutions.
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Session One: Race and Identity in Twenty-First Century Music Making.

Composer William Banfield opens by "speaking" to Dawson via a letter--reassuring him that the torch he carried is continuing forward in myriad ways, and highlighting the cultural challenges he faced in his life and career. He then talks about the way that the "post-album age" and musical culture in which we live challenges us. He relates, "I think the necessity, function and role of traditional race and cultural practices and teachings--thus carrying on our multiple traditions--is still huge today. The issue it seems to me is how to do it effectively at each new era, in a way that art, the tales, and the doing, the documenting gets done and reaches people and moves them beyond."